Rehousing Poecilotheria(s). [Indian ornamental tarantulas.]
Just a quick post with some pics of today’s adventures in rehousing a Poecilotheria regalis and a P. miranda.
The P. regalis was fun as it decided to explore the bathtub wall tile, but was easily catch cupped. Tarantulas roll in spurts, and the trick is to let em’ stop before trying to recapture.
The P. miranda on the other hand, waltzed gracefully from the old house to the cup to the new house.
This is the time that I’ve been expecting. Quite a few of my collection are growin’ up, and require better (bigger) accommodations. In the next week, I will have to rehouse seven tarantulas, some arboreal, some terrestrial and one that can’t make up its mind whether it is one or the other. Heh.
A quick note on the large enclosure. A “bugarium” as is mentioned in the pictures is a Zoomed product. A surprisingly inexpensive 8 x 8 x 11″ terrarium of glass construction with a removable top. I custom built the top with acrylic and four 2″ round vents, leaving one of these loose to easily feed and water without major disruption for the tarantula. A rock weight keeps things from becoming accidentally “interesting”. I am very…VERY pleased with this product, and will be using it to house quite a few more specimens going forward. While this doesn’t have “cross-ventilation”, it is ‘airy’, and most adult tarantulas don’t need a breeze to thrive. Another positive for me with these is the uniform appearance. It will be quite simple to shelve these cubes for display without a lot of odd sized enclosures making things look cluttered.
Anyway, here’s the process of rehouse in pictures: (Click the coffee cup for the slideshow and captions.)
I’ve never had an issues with my pokies, but most are still young and my male (now sadly departed) was an incredibly calm little thing for a regalis. I recently rehoused a C. lividum. Oh boy, was that fun: she stormed up my arm and sat on my back, so I had to get my husband to cup her! He refuses to ever go near her again, for some reason… 😉
lol. Yeah, the Cyriopagopus genus is a bit of “handful”. 😀 Most of my pokies are juvenile and not sexed yet, although my P. ornata (which is dimorphic at 3-4″) presents as female. (yay!)
I’m desperately hoping that my ornata is female – such a pretty little thing, who got the true “pokie” carapace with the last moult. Almost time to rehouse that one again, I think: I’ve had it since it was a sling and it’s probably the size of yours now!
I also just bought the Bugarium for some tarantula keeping, I’m curious how you did the acrylic top. As you know the Bugarium does not have a lip, so either you have to frame our own around the acrylic, attach it to the existing screen frame, or just have it lie underneath. Also having trouble finding and 8X8 acrylic, I’m considering just using an 8X10 so it has a little overhang and lay it over top, perhaps hinge it to the back of the tank. Another guy on a forum I read just attaches Gorilla Tape to screen tops like this around the perimeter, then leaves the screen in place in the middle.
I cut out the screen and have the store (Lowes) cut a piece of duraplex to fit. This picture should show you just where that occurs. The knife tip is resting on the lip where the acrylic is glued after slicing out the plastic mesh:
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